Machine for splitting old railroad-rails and rolling the pieces into merchantable bars



2 Sheets-Sheet 1* P. HO'LUB & 0. s. LOOKE.

Machine for Splitting .OId- Railroad-Rails and Rolling the Pieces into Mer chantable-Bars.

Patented A ril 27 1880.

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NPEI'ERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. DV 0- 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. P. HOLUB 8: 0-. S. LOGKB. Machine for Splitting 01d Rai11 0ad RaJils and Rolling the'Pieoes into M'erc'hantable-B-ars. No. 227,016???- pv afi'mempril 27,1880.

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@ 1 1 CI E WITN-JLSSJJS JvrEJvToRs M By their fltfornez s- Uwzes sLocke N. Firm FHOTO-LITHOGRAFHER WASHINGTON D C UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

FRANK HOLUB AND UHARLES S. LOGKE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

'MACHlNE FOR SPLlTTING OLD RAILROAD-RAILS AND ROLLING THE PIECES INTO MERCHANTABLE BARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 227,010, dated April 27, 1880,

' Application filed December 4,1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, FRANK HOLUB and CHARLES S. LOOKE, both of the city of Ohicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements for Manufacturing Different Articles from Railroad-Rails, of which the followingis a specification.

Contemplating the form of ordinary T-rails, we have perceived that their different parts correspond somewhat to the forms of certain manufactures, and we have contrived a plan of cutting them longitudinally without newly shaping them as a whole, and without waste of material, and on such lines that their divided parts may be availed of to naturally and readily form, with but little forging, three different articles.

Accordingly the object of our invention is to produce from railroad-rails, or from sections or pieces of them, for example, horseshoeblanks, car-coupling-pin blanks, and wagontires, or heavy hoop metal.

In the manufacture ofrailroad-rails, whether of iron or steel, it becomes necessary, after rolling them, to saw off the ends in order to make the rails of exactly the right length. These ends areknown as cross ends or fag ends.

Sometimes it happens that the end of a long rail for several feet will contain a check, or otherwise be so imperfectly formed as to be unfit for use. In such cases the imperfect end is sawed off and a short rail formed, or else the whole rail is condemned for railroad purposes. In the use of rails they become worn, so as to be unsafe and to require replacing.

Again, they sometimes get broken or become,

bent by fires or other accidents.

It is our purpose mainly to utilize such cross ends and imperfect or damaged rails, which canbe purchased at comparatively cheap rates, for the manufacture of the articles named; and our machine and mode of operation have been devised accordingly.

In order to avoid repetition and to be better understood, we will reserve a succinct definitive statement of what our invention consists in, to be embraced in our claims, after we have first set out our method and mechanism in detail by reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, so far as necessary, the

' mechanism we employ and have in the particulars we name in our claims invented.

' Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan View; Fig. 2, a front elevation; Fig. 3, avertical longitudinal section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4, a view, in elevation, of the finishingrolls; Fig. 5, a transverse section of the rolls on the line 5 5 of Fig. 1; Fig. 6, a modification of the rolls for forming a double car-couplingpin blank; Figs. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 are detail views, showing the shapes of the carcoupling-pin and horseshoe blanks and bars from which they are formed at various stages of the operation.

We intend to use three-high rolls, so that we can operate first from one side of the machine and then from the other, in the ordinary way; but that is so well understood as not to need illustration, and it does not enter into our invention.

A in the drawings indicates a peculiar roll, and B another peculiar roll, the two being adapted to each. other so as to do the work contemplated. We may suppose a third roll, as shown by dotted lines, to be present above the roll B, exactly like the roll A, and all three to be properly adjusted and connected by usual gearing, so as to revolve in equal times. These rolls are provided at one end with like grooves O D and with like projections or cutters E, all adapted to receive a heated T-rail flatwise or with the web horizontal, and to divide it longitudinally into parts having cross-sections, respectively as indicated in Figs. 7 and 8, which we designate as bars a and I).

From the base portion 1), consisting of the flange or foot and a small portion of the web, we wish to form a horseshoe-blank and a wagontire. We therefore provide the roll A with grooves F Gr and cutter H, and the roll B with grooves I K anda like cutter H, and pass the base portion b back between the rolls, after giving it a quarter-turn to bring the flange the grooves or dies and cutters last described. The flange of the rail at the second out occupies a position at a right angle with that 00- cupied by it at the first severing, and the result is that one side of the base-piece b is severed by the cutters, and there is left an an glebar partially shaped for horseshoe-blanks.

part undermost, and subject it to the action of 5 In order to form a wagon-tire or strip of band metal from the severed strip formed by one side of the rail-flange, we provide the rolls A and B with grooves or dies L M and pass the strip through these grooves between the rolls, which leaves it in the flat rectangular form required.

In order to form horseshoe-blanks ot the other larger portion of the base-piece b, we provide the roll A with groove N, leaving the surface of the roll B plain opposite said groove, and pass the piece through the groove or die between the rolls, which forms it in crosssection, as shown in Fig. 9. We also provide the roll A with the concentric groove 0, of equal depth at all points, but wider in some portions than in others, as illustrated in Fig. 3

of the drawings, and the roll B with eccen tric groove P, correspondingly wider and narrower in difi'erent portions, but not of equal depth at all points. This groove P we also provide with toe-calk cavities p. The remainder of the base-piece, being passed between the rolls through these grooves or dies, is formed in cross-section as represented in Fig. 10, and passes thence back through a suitable guideway between a pair of vertical rolls, Q 1%, one of which is plain and the other provided with a groove, S, of the form illustrated, to give the final shape to the series of horseshoe-blanks.

We have not illustrated any gearing to operate these vertical rolls; but it is to be understood that they are to have suitable gearing to give them a velocity of rotation equal to that of the horizontal rolls.

It will be noticed that the grooves O and P become narrower at the points where the toeealks are to be formed in the blanks, the purpose of which is to guide the metal of the bar at those points and force it into the toe-calk cavities.

The object of employing two grooves, O and 1?, instead of one deeper groove and a plain surface upon one of the rolls, is to avoid finnin'g of the metal. We find that with two grooves, as described, the bar does not have so strong a tendency to fin in the process of rollingin tact, iinuing is practically avoided altogether.

It will also be noticed that where those portions of the bars which are to form the heels of the blanks come between the rolls the groove in the roll B is made deeper or eccentric, the object being to thicken the blanks and leave a greater mass of metal in them at the heel portions.

The effect of the vertical rolls is to narrow the heel portions of the blanks and to elongate or reduce in thickness the toe-calks, as will be obvious from inspection of the drawings.

From the top piece, a of the rail we wish to form a series of car-coupling-pin blanks. We therefore provide the roll A with groove T and the roll B with groove U, and pass the top piece back through these grooves or dies between the rolls, which form it in cross-section as shown in Fig. 11.

We also form in therolls like grooves or dies V, through which, between the rolls, we pass the piece, which forms it in cross-section as shown in Fig. 12. Finally we provide the rolls with like grooves W, provided at proper distances apart with corresponding depressions and projections X. Y. The partially-formed top piece is now passed through these last grooves or dies between the rolls and finished into a series of car-coupling-pin blanks, as shown in Fig. 13, which are of peculiar construction, corresponding to the dies described, having, as will be observed, holes 1 through. the head of each pin-blank and shoulders or projections 2 just below the holes.

We propose to perform all of the operations just described and form the several articles named by a single heating of the T-rail, and we have in practice demonstrated that we can do so. Our invention, therefore, results in great economyin practical working, besides enabling us to utilize the cross ends of new rails and the worn or damaged rails in the form in which they are usually found.

It will be obvious that our method may be practiced without adhering to precisely the form or arrangement of grooves or dies which we have adopted in connection with our rolls; and, so far as the method is concerned, we therefore do not intend to limit ourselves to the mechanism herein described. Neither with respect to the method do we intend to limit ourselves to the production of the three articles above named, because by this same mode of operation it is obvious that other articles instead of those named might be formed with but slight swaging of the parts of the rail after division of it, and at a single heating of it, (suitable modified dies being employed,) as, for instance, square bars instead of wagontires, angle-bars instead of a series of horseshoe-blanks, and round bars instead of a series of car-coupling pins.

Instead of forming a single series of carcoupling-pin blanks from the top piece, a, we may form two series very readily, and we contemplate this whenever there is a sufficient mass of metal to make two series of suitablesized pins instead of one. All we have to do to accomplish such a result is simply to duplicate the grooves or dies we have described for .rnaking a single series of pins, the duplicate grooves or dies being separated from each other by creasers or cutters, as illustrated in Fig. 6, the last cutter, Z, severing the two series of blanks at the final operation.

Having described the construction of our machine and the nature, object, and mode of operation of our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. The method hereinbefore described of manufacturing, by passing through rolls, by a single heating, and without waste, three articlesfrom a T-rail, which consists in severing the rail into the described three parts by two longitudinal cuts therethrough at right angles with each other, and then swaging or rolling these parts into different articles which they respectively approximate in shape or dimension, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, in a set of three-high rolls, of the upper and lower rolls, A, and the middle roll, B, the two former being provided with the like grooves or dies, depressions, projections, and cutters, as specified, and the latter being provided with the grooves or dies, depressions, projections, and cutters, as specified, whereby a series of horseshoe-blanks, a series of car-coupling-pin blanks, and a strip of band-iron may be made simultaneously by one heating of the rail.

3. The combination, substantially as hereinbefore set forth, of the rolls having the grooves O C D D, cutters E E, the grooves F G I K, and cutters H H, for first severing the rail through the web and then through the flange at right angles to the first cut.

4. The rolls provided with the grooves F G I K and cutters H H, for severing one side from the rail base or flange, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

5. The rolls provided the one with the concentric grooveO and the other with the eccentrio groove P, provided with the toe-calk depressions 19, both grooves being wider at those parts which form the heel portions of the blanks parts, the vertical final shaping-rolls, and a guideway thereto for the blanks, these mem bers being and operating substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

7. The combination of rolls provided with the groove U, the groove T, deepened or provided with the central cavity, the correspondin g grooves V V, and the corresponding grooves W W, respectively provided with the depressions and projections X Y, for forming a series of car-coupling-pin blanks, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

8. A connected series of car-coupling-pin blanks, such as described, each pin-blank having a hole through its head end and shoulders or projections on the same end just below the hole.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names.

FRANK HOLUB. CHARLES S. LOGKE. Witnesses:

JACOB KOKUSKA, WILLIAM SNYDER. 

